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Oregon News
TRANSPORTATION
Repeal of transportation bill would kill ODOT accountability measures
Statesman Journal | By Anastasia Mason
Gov. Tina Kotek's Jan. 7 call for lawmakers to repeal the $4.3 billion transportation package she championed would kill accountability measures at the Oregon Department of Transportation, though some lawmakers insist they are still a priority.
Kotek's seven minute speech announcing the plan included no direct mention of accountability for ODOT.
The governor's office did not respond to questions about how Kotek would advocate for transparency and accountability at ODOT if the bill is repealed.
The plan calls for existing transportation funds to be reallocated to patch ODOT's $242 million budget hole, fund maintenance and operations, repeal the bill and create a new transportation package for the 2027 session.
Republicans had floated similar proposals to redirect funding to ODOT, advocating against higher taxes and fees.
"The accountability pieces in the bill were never going to solve ODOT's issues. As long as we have one party control, or unless Legislative Democrats start taking an interest in prioritizing money and actually providing legislative oversight, we are going to continue to see failed bureaucracy,” Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, said in a statement to the Statesman Journal. Boshart Davis was co-vice chair of the Joint Committee on Transportation during the regular 2025 session and a key Republican voice on transportation issues.
Boshart Davis said Democrats were latching on to Republican proposals, and that the bill should not be repealed in its entirety.
Many of the accountability changes that received widespread support had yet to begin by Kotek's Jan. 7 announcement.
The Statesman Journal published a three-part investigation in 2025 detailing accountability lapses and funding constraints at ODOT from the last major funding package passed in 2017.
Budgeting errors, murky tracking and inconsistent information contributed to lawmaker skepticism toward ODOT, which has been in turmoil for at least the past year. Amid threats of 483 layoffs after a bill failed to pass in regular session, maintenance station closures and overall uncertainty, hundreds of workers left the agency, including a handful of top officials. ODOT director Kris Strickler resigned, effective Jan. 2.
Now-Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, was selected to lead accountability discussions for the bill. Lawmakers put $50,000 for a management review to assist in forming the measures. Starr has also led the referendum effort.
Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, who is running against Kotek for governor for the second time, said lawmakers should emerge from the 2026 session with a balanced budget and accountability measures for ODOT.
"If the supermajority decides they don't want to have them vote on it, then repeal of the taxes is one thing, but please, please, please don't put our state in a position where we don't have adequate oversight and accountability for an agency like the Department of Transportation," Drazan said.
How those accountability measures might come about and if they will resemble the ones in HB 3991 remains to be seen. Lawmakers were set to discuss potential transportation legislation beginning Jan. 13 for the 2026 session.
Transportation talks will be a focus of 2026 Oregon legislative session
The 2026 legislative session begins Feb. 2 and can continue until March 8. Transportation discussions will once again fight for time on a busy agenda.
Lawmakers knew they would need to start searching for other solutions to fund ODOT when signatures were verified, according to Rep. Susan McLain, D-Hillsboro, who was a leader in developing the 2025 package.
"Having a reset means that we have to decide if we want it to be a clean reset or if we're going to have a partial bill that is maintained," McLain said.
ODOT has already made changes and lawmakers are committed to improving accountability so it will likely come up right away in discussions, she said.
A spokesperson for Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, declined to comment on the potential repeal.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, said a repeal "is one of the approaches under discussion."
Not everyone is inclined to support the redo, especially in the face of hundreds of thousands of Oregonians who supported referring the bill to the ballot.
"At this point I am not intending on voting in any way that would impede the ability of the voters to have their opportunity at the ballot on this matter," Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth said.
Drazan, who rallied support for the referendum, is also opposed to entirely scrapping the bill, despite the included elimination of the tax hikes.
"We'll need to continue to talk as things move forward as caucuses in the House and the Senate," Drazan said. "But for me personally, I can tell you I do not support repeal of House Bill 3991."
McLain said transportation has drawn larger interest in recent months and she's hopeful there will be more public involvement.
"I think it's going to be, in my mind, a more clean and even a more public process than we even had in the last three years," McLain said.
Months of failed negotiations and back and forth have left others with less positive reflections.
"I think that there was a lot of smoke and mirrors involved in the package and I find the entire process unfortunate," Evans said. "I hope that if there is a future process, people deal in better good faith."
POLITICS
Oregon to restart removal of inactive voter registrations
Statesman Journal | By Anastasia Mason
Oregon will go back to removing inactive voter registrations, Secretary of State Tobias Read said Jan. 9.
“These directives are about cleaning up old data that’s no longer in use so Oregonians can be confident that our voter records are up to date,” Read said in a statement. “From day one, our goal was clear: run elections that are secure, fair, and accurate. This move will strengthen our voter rolls and reinforce public trust in our elections.”
Oregon braces for vote by mail changes as federal pressure mounts
KOIN 6 | By Lisa Balick
There’s an initiative petition drive to go back to all in-person voting with paper ballots, and President Trump is threatening to end vote-by-mail.
Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read defends the vote-by-mail system for the 3 million Oregon voters, but he says he is prepared to pivot if federal laws change.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer the subject of internal Labor Department misconduct complaint: Report
KGW | By Jamie Parfitt
Chavez-DeRemer and two of her top staffers were named in a formal complaint filed with a Labor Department watchdog, according to multiple reports.
Supreme Court enters battle over transgender athletes in school sports
Associated Press
Lower courts ruled for the transgender athletes in Idaho and West Virginia who challenged the state bans, but the conservative-dominated Supreme Court might not follow suit.
Why did the cost of Oregon hunting and fishing licenses go up?
Statesman Journal | By Zach Urness
The fees increase came from a suite of ODFW budget bills passed in the 2025 legislature. ODFW officials cited skyrocketing inflation and costs, combined with flat revenue, in the need to raise prices. The agency noted that they last asked the legislature for a price increase in 2016 and prices hadn't gone up since pre-pandemic 2020.
PORTLAND SHOOTING & IMMIGRATION
Southwest Portland shooting linked to suspects shot by Border Patrol last week
KGW | By Katherine Cook
Investigators believe that the two people shot on Jan. 8 by Border Patrol are the suspects in a shooting that happened in Southwest Portland last summer.
Lawmakers propose strengthening Oregon’s sanctuary laws after Border Patrol shooting
KOIN 6 | By Ariel Iacobazzi
Tensions in Portland, already high from federal immigration enforcement, escalated after last week’s border patrol shooting.
On Wednesday, several democratic state lawmakers plan to introduce proposals to strengthen Oregon’s existing sanctuary protections, including halting state deals with companies that assist ICE and creating better privacy protections for health and immigration information.
The changes come as the two Venezuelans shot by customs and border agents are now out of the hospital.
Both are alleged to be tied to the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua.
Pair shot by U.S. Border Patrol in Portland charged with illegal entry, assaulting federal officer
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Shaanth Nanguneri
The pair of Venezuelan nationals shot by U.S Customs and Border Protection on Thursday in East Portland are facing criminal charges for assaulting a federal officer and illegally entering the United States, following allegations that they have ties to a multinational crime syndicate and prostitution ring.
He rode a horse to Portland ICE protests claiming to be Mexican. His family says his story isn’t true
The Oregonian | By Michael Russell
“He’s not half Mexican,” Robert Hofmann said. “His parents aren’t immigrants. He doesn’t have an uncle detained by ICE.”
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
New study says Oregon tops nation for inbound out-of-state movers. Will economic growth follow?
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Shaanth Nanguneri
For the first time in nearly 50 years, an annual study backed by America’s largest moving network found that Oregon led the country in the year of 2025 for the most inbound movers.
The top reasons for movers both leaving and coming to the state related to family and work opportunities, though people entering Oregon tended to be younger on average, according to the study. Nearly half of the inbound movers reported an annual income of $150,000 or more.
But the most popular destinations in Oregon for out-of-state arrivals did not involve the state’s largest metropolitan area of Portland. Rather, the Eugene-Springfield area and Salem made the study’s top inbound metropolitan areas, ranking at first and seventh in the nation respectively.
Debates surrounding Oregon’s growth and migration have already made it to the 2026 Oregon governor’s race. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s top political rival, Sen. Christine Drazan, a Republican gubernatorial candidate from Canby, blasted her for creating an environment where people are fleeing the state.
“Our governor may be in charge, but her state is out of control,” Drazan, a frontrunner for the Republican nomination who came within a few percentage points of defeating Kotek in 2022, said in October when announcing her campaign. “This place we love is so incredible and so beautiful, mountains, trees, our rivers, our ocean, abundant natural resources. So we have to stop and ask ourselves, why, despite all of this, are people leaving?
One of the bills Drazan has said she plans to introduce for the legislative session in February tackles education, seeking to reinstate essential skill graduation requirements for Oregon high school graduates. Oregon lawmakers passed legislation in 2021 suspending those mandates, removing key literacy, math and writing proficiency requirements for attaining a diploma.
Kotek, on the other hand, has vowed to introduce legislation to establish a “FastTrack Program” aimed at streamlining large projects that will create jobs and boost the state’s economic activity. Lawmakers on Wednesday in the House Rules Committee will also hear more from House Majority Leader Rep. Ben Bowman, D-Tigard, and his previously-announced proposals to streamline the permitting and rulemaking process.
“The governor recognizes that and has convened a prosperity council,” Tapogna said, pointing to a July CNBC ranking that listed Oregon at 39th nationwide for friendliness to businesses. “I think that’s a reflection of the fact that those statistics have fallen as far as they have.”
The governor announced the members of that 16-member council on Thursday. The advisory body, whose meetings are not open to the public, plans to hold its first meeting this month and deliver recommendations to Kotek for accelerating Oregon’s economy by June 30.
‘A 9-gigawatt problem’: Northwest’s soaring energy demand, supply constraints, could spark new power crisis
The Oregonian | By Mike Rogoway
Oregon's data center industry launched 20 years ago when Google opened its first major installations in The Dalles. Data centers now operate all across the state, triggering huge growth in Oregon's total energy consumption.
Reworld Marion garbage incinerator sale to Houston company fails
Statesman Journal | By Tracy Loew
A potential deal to sell the shuttered Reworld Marion municipal waste incinerator to Houston-based Peaker Energy has fallen through.
On Jan. 5, Reworld notified the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality that it was no longer in negotiations with the company and would move to terminate the facility’s air quality permit.
Portland’s latest closures include beloved gastropub, bakery, pop-up venue
The Oregonian | By Michael Russell
Portland’s latest restaurant and bar closures include a beloved North Portland gastropub, a chic Pearl District bakery and a Northeast Portland venue that hosted several notable pop-ups.
HOUSING
Project Turnkey Recipient Halts Affordable Housing Project in Gresham
Willamette Week | By Anthony Effinger
It’s the latest setback for the man who calls the Rockwood neighborhood “my Calcutta.”
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
Portland parents allege 13-year-old threatened students, brought knife to school yet still attends
KPTV | By Mikhala Armstrong
Parents are calling for action after they say bullying almost turned violent at a Northeast Portland school.
The families involved now tell FOX 12 they want more done to address it, fearing their children won’t be safe in the classroom.
Immigrant truck driver to enter plea in Deschutes County Court after fatal crash
OPB | By Kathryn Styer Martinez
A commercial truck driver who federal authorities say entered the U.S. illegally three years ago is expected to enter a plea Tuesday in Bend on charges of manslaughter after an accident late last year that killed a newlywed couple returning from their honeymoon.
HEALTH CARE
Demotion of Primary Care Champion at OHSU Raises Concerns Among Faculty
Willamette Week | By Andrew Schwartz
The medical school dean ousted the popular chair of the family medicine program. Some are uneasy, but OHSU says it remains committed to the department’s “vital” work.
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